I have to admit, I'm not the greatest cook who ever walked the planet, so I thought I'd consult the culinary oracle here!A friend of mine is vegan, but as someone who tends to have meat and/or cheese in 99% of my main meals I'm at a bit of a loss for what to cook for them. Does anyone have any preferred vegan meals? Ideally something quite hearty to deal with the autumnal weather. Thanks in advance!

Baked stuffed squash. I like to use acorn squash, one per person, or maybe 1/2 per person if the squash are huge. Stuff with cooked grains-rice, bulgar, barley, etc., mixed with sautéed mushrooms, onions, garlic and maybe chopped tomato. I sometimes add nuts and dried apricots.You can use whatever flavor profile you like in the filling. Soy, garlic and ginger=Asia, lemon and herbs=France, cumin, sage and chili=Tex-Mex and so on. Also look up the vegan death metal chef videos. Good things to cook, with an interesting viewpoint thrown in. (For those non vegan meals, add some cheese to the filling)

Don’t become a well-rounded person. Well rounded people are smooth and dull. Become a thoroughly spiky person. Grow spikes from every angle. Stick in their throats like a puffer fish.

PAstrychef wrote:Baked stuffed squash. I like to use acorn squash, one per person, or maybe 1/2 per person if the squash are huge. Stuff with cooked grains-rice, bulgar, barley, etc., mixed with sautéed mushrooms, onions, garlic and maybe chopped tomato. I sometimes add nuts and dried apricots.You can use whatever flavor profile you like in the filling. Soy, garlic and ginger=Asia, lemon and herbs=France, cumin, sage and chili=Tex-Mex and so on. Also look up the vegan death metal chef videos. Good things to cook, with an interesting viewpoint thrown in. (For those non vegan meals, add some cheese to the filling)

That sounds mighty fine, thanks for the suggestion! Very versatile too. This vegan black metal chef guy is quality too

Classic vinaigrette is entirely vegan and definitely spices up a salad (at least in the metaphorical sense of "spice"). Wine or cider vinegar, olive oil, crushed garlic, a little mustard, salt and pepper.

As for other food, nutritional yeast flakes are pretty much a miracle ingredient for satisfying vegan flavor, also soy sauce and dried mushrooms for umami (buy soy sauce from Asian grocery stores for massive savings). My main advice though would be to read about flavor balancing if you don't know about it already, because that equips you to come up with your own satisfying seasoning mixes with whatever you happen to have on hand. This article is a good place to start (not vegan specific, but a lot of the suggestions don't include animal products)

All of the applies to general cooking, but I've found its way more important in vegan cooking, because it's more often "ensemble" cooking, without a single stand-out component, like many meat dishes tend to have.